O'Brien denies he paid for `stand-in'

A former oil company executive denied yesterday paying £2,500 sterling in cash to a fellow Irishman to impersonate a company director and secretly boost his holding in London-based Alliance Resources.

It is claimed the then chief executive of Alliance, Mr John O'Brien, needed the stand-in to sign documents to complete a deal that moved 7.5 million shares into his own offshore company ProGas Holdings. In order to satisfy Alliance stockbrokers' demand that the deal be completed in front of a notary public, Mr O'Brien is alleged to have hired an acquaintance to appear before a lawyer.

At London's Southwark Crown Court, it is alleged Mr O'Brien (45) later ordered the fee to be paid in return for a Mr John McEwan to act out the position of ProGas president. The trickery is said to have taken place as cash-strapped Alliance stood on the verge of striking a bonanza by exploiting a North American gas-field.

Mr O'Brien is accused by the Serious Fraud Office of later rigging a £7.2 million public share issue on the London stock market.

Mr O'Brien, on his third day in the witness box in the long-running trial, denied "getting someone to impersonate" a Progas director. He told the jury how Mr McEwen, from Kildare, was a commission salesman for a pension company and was also paid by Alliance for promoting its stock.